theworriedjournalist
Times-Picayune, or any other city newspaper?
Splice Today does, as evidenced in this artiucle. It’s kind of ironic because according to the site’s mission statement,
Splice Today is a web magazine featuring idiosyncratic writing and visual presentation on topics of interest and concern to an audience that values perspective over popularity. We depend on contributors who aren’t getting their voices heard anywhere else.
Isn’t that kind of the problem? That people are turning away from traditional newspapers for e-zeins like ST?
Anyway, the article notes
The numbers say it all, stark and simple, with no zippy adjectives needed to heighten their impact. Just last week, the Audit Bureau of Circulations, released its six-month downward spiral: Newspapers across the country lost 10.6 percent of their paying readers. And in Baltimore, the Sun—the last remaining major daily in a town which 25 years ago had three—lost 15 percent of its daily circulation and eight percent of its Sunday deliveries. Its daily circulation is now down to 186,639 and its Sunday circulation stands at 322,491.
But perhaps the scariest thought of all:
Without newspapers, Oprah will reign and People will set the American agenda. Think of a world of information dominated by Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and a few other screwballs who use their First Amendment rights to contaminate the news pool by conflating opinion with fact. That’s how petri dish rumors, without editors and fact-checkers, are incubated and assume a life of their own outside the dish.
Sorry, I thought this happened already. The gym where I work out has a big screen TV in the lobby. Mind you, most of the people there are fairly upscale with higher-than-average educations. So why is The People’s Court, or some such nonsense always on?
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